Started in 2007 as a reflection on local life in and around Lenton Recreation Ground, a small inner-city park in Nottingham, from the perspective of a local resident whose home overlooks the park. Now as much about life in the city and other things more personal.

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Wednesday, 28 March 2012

We have had a few wonderful summery like days and it's still March! Today I went out delivering the quarterly Dunkirk and Lenton Branch Labour Party newsletter, which included a walk through Lenton Recreation Ground.

When I set off just after 2pm, the park was still quiet and what struck me was the fact that a few years from now and the Lenton Flats in the background will be gone — demolished or, in jargon speak, 'decommissioned'. Only the tree in the foreground, which is still leafless, gives a clue as to the time of the year. The houses are on Devonshire Promenade, where I live, and on the right hand side you can see the old Lenton 'National' School which opened in 1841 and closed in the 1950s. In the 1970's it became a Sikh temple / gurdwara.

I also saw Dave, our groundsman, for the first time in ages. He has just returned from a well deserved seven week holiday in New Zealand. This pic is for a mutual friend, Alex, and I think it catches Dave, the man, perfectly. This time next week, if the weather holds, we could be sneaking a pre-season roll-up on the bowling green.

My delivery round for the Party is the roads off Lenton Boulevard between Derby Road and Castle Boulevard — just over 300 homes — and I can do it in 90 minutes, but today it took me 2½ hours as I stopped to chat with folk I knew along the way. I also met Megan, who will be officially appointed as Lenton's new Church of England vicar on Monday. I wished her well and I hope she enjoys living and working in Lenton. I didn't think to take her pic. There will be plenty of opportunities to do that in the future.

However, I did ask these three lads I saw on Lois Avenue if I could take their pic. They are, left to right, Ed, David and Callum. I thought them very enterprising as they moved their small front room outside so that they could sit in the sun. Callum looks a little like a young version of my 'leader', Ed Miliband.

One person asked me about the Labour Party newsletter as I walked back and wanted to know why Labour was against having a (directly elected executive) mayor? I said that at a time when Nottingham City Council's budget was being cut, it seems crazy to me that we should spend near a million pounds on elections, then setting up an office and paying the mayor a large salary. For me though, the biggest objection is that we are being asked to say 'yes' to mayor without knowing what powers this new type of mayor will have.

By 4.30pm, when I arrived home, the park was much busier and I took the pic below from outside our house on the Prom.